The Effect Of Cottage Parent Expectancy On Reinforcement Administered To Oppositional Children

The effect of manipulating expectation of social behavior on the amount of contingent reinforcement delivered by caretakers to a child was investigated. Forty cottage parents employed at a state institution for the mentally retarded were asked to view a video tape of a 14 year old mildly retarded female engaged in cleanup activities with her peers. The cottage parents were asked to record social, cooperative, and on-task behavior. A 15 second interval recording technique was used. The subjects were asked to consider each check as an occasion for reinforcement of that behavior. The subjects were divided into four groups of 10 subjects each with each group receiving differing information about the child . . . There were no significant difference in the number of checks recorded by the four groups. Intensity of expectancy, strict adherence to the task, strict definition of task and behavior were suggested as possible variables effecting the outcome of the study.